Pubdate: Thu, 26 Apr 2007
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Jaxon Van Derbeken
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

3 TENDERLOIN SLAYINGS ARE CALLED DRUG-RELATED

Poor Neighborhood Is "An Open Drug Market," Police Say

San Francisco police say three recent killings in the city's 
Tenderloin are part of a wave of drug-related violence accounting for 
nearly a third of the city's 31 homicides this year.

Early Wednesday, the drug violence claimed its latest victim, 
identified by police as Jeffrey McLaughlin, 38, who was shot to death 
in what police say was a drug dispute over money at Hyde and Turk 
streets at 12:25 a.m.

Lt. John Murphy of the San Francisco police homicide detail said the 
attack is believed to be drug related because a witness reported 
overhearing talk that the victim owed money to a trio of men before 
the shooting. Murphy said the men confronted McLaughlin on the street.

"It (the dispute) started out front of 138 Hyde (Street) and then he 
(McLaughlin) got away and ran around the corner on Turk Street and 
they shot him in the back of the head," Murphy said.

The slaying came as the department had already beefed up patrols and 
ordered undercover narcotics enforcement in the Tenderloin this 
month, in response to the violence and drug trade.

Police say two other recent killings in the Tenderloin also were drug 
related. Lena Allen, 54, was the innocent victim in an April 14 gun 
battle on Ellis Street between an unidentified man and Walter Simon, 
32, of Richmond, police say. Simon has not been charged with the 
killing. Prosecutors are awaiting ballistic analysis before deciding 
whether to file charges.

At 7 p.m. the day before, April 13, 16-year-old Kelvin Mencia of 
Oakland was shot outside a doughnut shop at Golden Gate Avenue and 
Hyde Street and fled inside. The attack was captured on video. Police 
say that incident stemmed from a drug dispute. Police have arrested 
one adult, Jason Santillan, 25, of San Bruno, and several juveniles 
in the case.

Both Simon and Santillan were free on probation at the time of the 
killings and had been caught with guns in the months before, police say.

Murphy said many of the suspects and victims in recent shootings have 
been from outside the city. "We're seeing a lot more spontaneous 
violence in the drug trade -- it's obvious to us that many of the 
people involved don't live here."

Murphy said the activity, which police refer to as commuter crime, is 
centered in the Tenderloin, where they acknowledge narcotics are 
available for purchase at all hours on the streets.

"It's an open drug market and it runs late," Murphy said of the 
Tenderloin. "It's an all night market."

With 31 slayings, San Francisco's murders are up 33 percent over this 
date last year. Nearly a third of the slayings, 9, are attributed to 
the drug trade, according to police. Last year, police say, the city 
had 13 drug related homicides, just over a sixth of the total of 85.

To counter the trend, police say, they have applied for and obtained 
grants totaling more than a half-million dollars. They include a 
$330,000 grant to target methamphetamine trafficking; $100,000 to 
counter gun crime and street drug sales; and $117,000 for a 
federal-local partnership to seek lengthy sentences for felons caught 
with firearms, as a way to counter drug- and gang-related homicides.

The grants were approved last week by the Board of Supervisors.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman